Crane to receive $70 million discount for Astros’ switch to American League

MILWAUKEE — Jim Crane will receive a $70 million discount off his $680 million purchase price in exchange for moving the Astros to the American League in 2013, according to a Major League Baseball official with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

Astros owner Drayton McLane will contribute $35 million of the $70 million, the official said, with the remaining $35 million coming from Major League Baseball.

Barring a last-minute snag, Crane’s purchase of the Astros will be approved by MLB owners during a meeting here Thursday morning, and he could assume control of the club as early as Monday.

However, the American League switch may not be announced Thursday as part of the sale process. Baseball officials would like that day to be strictly about Crane and McLane, and will deal with the league switch at another time.

Crane’s approval comes six months after he and McLane originally announced the sale. At the time, McLane predicted Crane would be approved quickly.

That appeared to be the case until Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig abruptly pulled the sale from the agenda at an August meeting of MLB owners.

McLane said MLB needed more time to investigate Crane’s investor group, which includes at least 15 primary investors and as many as 35 smaller investors.

Selig also needed more time to become comfortable with Crane in the wake of an assortment of legal cases brought against his companies over the years.

The commissioner gradually came to accept Crane, according to MLB officials with knowledge of his thinking.

First, Crane was more than a decade removed from allegations of sexism and racism by some of his companies. Second, baseball was impressed by the depth and quality of Crane’s investment group.

“It’s impossible not to be impressed when you see the people who’ve signed up to be partners with Jim,” the official said, “and we’ve heard nothing but good things about George Postolos.”

Postolos, the former Rockets’ team president, will be the Astros’ chief executive officer under Crane.

Another hitch in the approval process was the switch to the American League.

Baseball has long wanted to realign to two 15-team leagues and six five-team divisions. To do that meant moving a team from the National League Central to the American League West.

With the impending change in Astros’ ownership, MLB made the switch part of the approval process, and Crane apparently went along reluctantly.

“Listen,” the official said on Tuesday, “we understand that Houston has been a National League city for (50) seasons, and there’s some resistance about moving. We also understand there could be some damage (to the franchise), and that’s what these negotiations were about. We wanted to be fair.”

Moving to the American League will remove the Astros from a division — and a league — where they’ve had heated rivalries with the Cardinals, Cubs and Dodgers, among others, through the years.

However, baseball hopes an entirely new geographical rivalry with the Texas Rangers will begin. They envision a time when the two teams will be playing with a playoff berth on the line in September and hope such a rivalry could ignite baseball interest throughout Texas.

The downside to the move is that the Astros may play an addition 12 to 15 late games on the West Coast. Those games could mean lower television ratings, and thus lower revenues.

The Rangers are strongly in favor of having the Astros in the American League West, in part, because it would mean fewer late-starting road games for them.

“I spoke to Nolan Ryan,” the official said, “and he’s really excited. He thinks it’s going to be a very good thing.”